260359 3rd Radio Off. Brian Roy Clarke Merchant Navy SS Sithonia from:Preston Brian Clarke was third radio officer on the SS Sithonia, which was torpedoed in the mid-Atlantic on 13th of July 1942 by a German submarine U-201, commanded by Kapitanleutnant Adalbert Schnee. Most of the crew survived in two lifeboats. Brian’s lifeboat arrived in Africa two weeks later, where eventually they were taken prisoner by Vichy French authorities and sent to a POW camp near Dakar. At the end of the war, they were released and repatriated. Details of his story and survival and imprisonment were brought to public attention through his recordings (titled ‘Adrift’) on tape and CD, which are available at the Imperial War Museum. Also, the book ‘Making Shore’ was basically Brian’s true story, although it had some embellishments of a romantic nature.
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